Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Elizabeth had tea with the Disney princesses, ...that was her dream
Posing for pictures with Disney princesses and meeting Minnie Mouse, little Elizabeth Soffe was in her element. Her magical trip to Disneyland Paris with Make-a-wish UK, this year’s Mirror Christmas Appeal charity, was a dream come true for the schoolgirl.
It was also a much-needed break for her family, for whom the past few years had been more challenging than they could ever have prepared for.
Elizabeth, who turns eight today, was six months old when her cot caught fire after the air conditioning unit in her parents’ bedroom malfunctioned.
Telling of her devastating injuries, dad Liam, 43, says: “The only place she wasn’t burned was on her back.
“She lost most of her fingers and all of her hair permanently. She lost part of her nose and her ear as well.
“Almost eight years on she continues to have regular operations. She has 70% full thickness burns and has had many, many skin grafts over the years. It’s been an incredibly difficult thing to deal with but Elizabeth is a fantastic girl.
“We couldn’t be more proud of her.”
After the blaze in 2014 at the family’s home in Qatar, where civil engineer Liam had work, Elizabeth was flown to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
Liam and nurse wife Sinead, both originally from Dublin, had their first two children in Manchester, where they had lived before moving to the Middle East.
Now they have made their home in Birmingham to be near the hospital.
Telling of the blaze, Liam says: “My wife had just put Elizabeth down for a nap in our room. She went downstairs and she’d only been down maybe 30 seconds when she heard the baby crying. The wall-mounted unit had gone on fire, setting fire to the cot, to Elizabeth, to the whole room.”
At the hospital in capital Doha, Elizabeth’s parents were told that she needed to be transferred to a hospital with paediatric intensive care facilities.
With none available nearby, she was flown to Birmingham.
Liam says: “She spent a few months in intensive care before being moved to the high dependency burns centre at the Children’s Hospital in Birmingham. Sinead and I stayed in the city, while the rest of the children stayed with our parents in Ireland for about six months.”
But they decided to make their home in Birmingham when they realised that Elizabeth’s treatment would be a longterm feature of their lives.
When they went to Disneyland Paris with Make-a-wish in 2018, it was the family’s first holiday since the fire.
Not only did it make Elizabeth’s dream come true, it also gave a muchneeded break to Liam, Sinead, 42, and older kids Danny, 13, Amelia, 12, and nine-year-old William.
Liam says: “Many charities have helped us over the years, and they’ve all been fantastic. But Make-a-wish have been really special to us. All six of us went on this trip to Paris together and it was absolutely fantastic.
“We hadn’t been on holiday since the fire, so it was amazing for all of us and something I think we needed.
“The highlight for Elizabeth was having tea and cakes with the Disney princesses – what little girl wouldn’t love that?
“The trip was a really magical experience for all of us, and Elizabeth was made to feel very special. We didn’t have to queue and we got to meet all six of the princesses, so it really was a dream for her. We met Minnie Mouse too, and I think everyone was starstruck by her.”
This year, Elizabeth decided to raise funds for Birmingham Children’s Hospital by running a mile a day
for 26 consecutive days. A laser machine bought with the proceeds is being unveiled to mark her birthday today.
Liam says: “She wanted to raise £130,000 to help fund a laser machine that breaks down scars to make them less uncomfortable. In the end she raised £215,000. We’re so proud of her.”
Determined to help Make-a-wish UK too, Elizabeth donated some of the cash left over from the purchase of the machine to the cause.
Liam says: “We’d love for other families and children going through tough times to have a break from all that, like we did. It was a fantastic experience and Make-a-wish is a great organisation to be involved with.”